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The bigger a company gets, the greater its opportunity to drive down costs, increase customer value and expand market share. Or, as some companies prove, simply create bigger problems.

Here’s a funny story you’ve probably experienced yourself. You try to purchase a product a service from a big company, say, a laptop from Lenovo or internet service from Comcast. Along the way, a problem arises. Maybe the product cannot be built and shipped on time. Maybe the service date for installation slips. Maybe installation goes well but the internet connection doesn’t perform as promised. So you call to speak to someone to work out the solution.

That’s when the “biggness conundrum” comes into play. As companies grow to massive – perhaps behemoth – size, their process for handling information, such as customer inquiries, problems and service requests, benefit less from the supposed economies of scale and suffer more from the scale of information dis-organization. The simplest indicator is when the person on the other end of the phone says, “We have no previous record of your request (complaint/problem/whatever).”

Huh?

It’s become almost comical these days, as if the Keystone Cops have taken over companies we try to shop. Airline personnel can’t tell you why their own planes haven’t arrived at the gate yet. Computer manufacturers have to send an email – which requires two days for a response – to their own factories in the Far East to check your order. You receive a phone call from your internet service provider confirming their technician will be arriving this afternoon, only to tell them that he’s been at your office for the last two hours. And talking to people back at their company on his cell phone.

How could they not have known?

Of course, not all companies operate this way, even when they get really big. The package delivery companies have figured out how to have customers sign for receipt on a PDA, transmit that signature wirelessly to their website, and update all parties (sender, dispatch, billing) that the job was done. Yet it seems that more companies experience escalating information-disconnect, between internal departments and between departments and consumers, despite advances in information technology. That’s how you end up with a Comcast who doesn’t know its own employee has been on-site for two hours when they call to confirm he’ll be there later in the day.

Certainly, you don’t have to be big to experience information-disorganization. Smaller organizations – even independent contractors – can have challenges keeping the flow of information moving. Ironically, it’s not technology that’s needed to solve the problem. Email, texting, social media collaboration, even a simple voice mail are more than plenty to keep all parties “in the loop.” Rather, it’s a company’s focus on the value for information collaboration that makes the difference. A commitment to gathering, sharing and using customer request information purposefully is what sets good customer service companies apart from bad ones. Knowing when a consumer inquires, what they need, who is working on the request and what’s happening to satisfy it isn’t rocket science; it’s called management science. Computer companies call it technical service requests; Zappos calls it a customer order; and REALTORS call it leads management.

And all it needs to be done effectively is management involvement; not just technology.

From the consumer’s perspective, nothing is more frustrating than the silly, frantic reactions of a company that doesn’t know anything about what you’re talking about. Today’s customers want to know that you’ve taken their request – for a product, for service, for information about a home – seriously. They expect it to be “in the system” and that all of the appropriate parties have been “updated” and set in motion. Gen X and Y consumers don’t understand why a steady flow of information doesn’t issue forth from companies they are paying money: where the plane is, where the technician is, where their offer to purchase a home stands. By the time they have to speak to the person who “actually” knows what’s going on, they have made a mental decision to just “complete this deal, but never come back.”

Unlike the Keystone Cops, information-disorganized companies don’t get the benefit of a re-run with the customer.